Animals In PrintThe On-Line Newsletter25 August 2010 Issue

How Humane Slaughter Really Works

Message from Patty..inspector

Dear Friends,

Twenty-five years ago I made my first abattoir inspection. I had read a
study on "dark-cutting" and porcine stress syndrome which investigated the
regular occurrences, measured scientifically, of how stress (fear) affects
the quality of meat at the slaughterhouse. The Victorian Department of
Agriculture arranged to take me to several slaughterhouses and knackeries to
show me first hand how "humane" and regulated the killing was. I was
hesitant to go, but determined to prove the absolute fear and terror animals
suffer prior to their slaughter.

The killing lines start early, by 7am I was standing on the narrow walkway
above the stun pen. I was dressed in slaughterhouse gear: white coat, rubber
boots and white hat covering my hair, my clipboard and pen in hand. The iron
chains and heavy metal gates were loud and slamming, steam was rising, the
shower room where the cows were hosed down prior to their death was only
meters along the chute leading to the stun pen. One by one the cows were
jabbed with an electric prod to keep them moving. Their eyes flashed and
darted wildly about, their nostrils flared wide open and some were frothing
at the mouth. The closer the cows got to the stun box the more frenzied they
became, contorting their bodies in all directions to try to go back - to
anywhere else. The more they resisted the more the painful jabs from the
electric prod forced them forward.

I braced myself to watch my first murder, I had taken the first sedative in
my life an hour earlier, it seemed to get me through. When the cow is locked
in the stun box she looks upwards and a captive bolt pistol is aimed at her
head. A steel shaft 7cms long penetrates her skull and renders her
unconscious. It can take several attempts to hit the right spot. This
happened and the cow desperately kept trying to avoid the gun by banging and
clanging her body into the sides of the stun pen. Our eyes met just as the
bolt entered her head. My life is frozen in that moment and I promised her
that for the rest of my life I would do all I could to shut down abattoirs.
The blood stained notes from 1981 are still in my files.

Many more cows, sheep, pigs and horses were to follow in subsequent
inspections in various abattoirs. Pigs scream the loudest and fight the
hardest to escape the knife. The most prolonged suffering I've ever had to
witness at an abattoir was in NSW when a free-range pig was approaching the
stunner. She went hysterical and was frothing at the mouth and her chest
heaved and caved as she struggled valiantly and continuously to escape. I
ached to yell out, "STOP, ENOUGH!" and to hold her in my arms, soothe her,
give her a drink of cool water then take her to a safe place. Smoke rose
from her temples as the man held the electric stunner firmly and longer than
normal, to both sides of her head.

55 Billion animals were slaughtered for food last year and the death toll
rises yearly and doesn't even include fish and other water animals. The
world human population is 6.5 Billion and growing. Humans are ravenously
addicted to eating other animals; we can't seem to stuff their legs, wings,
hips and heads into our mouths fast enough. The level of terror and violence
our meat habit created is astronomical and unmatched by anything else on the
planet. Turn the tables just once, put humans in the killing line and see
how fast things would change!

It took me 25 years to chain myself to the abattoir killing floor and say,
"NO". Ten other people did the same at the Churchill Abattoir in Queensland
during the World Meat Congress on April 28 this year. We stopped the
slaughter for a few hours until the violence and anger of the slaughterhouse
owner and workers came down heavy on us, their angle-grinder whizzing and
whirring vicious sparks in our faces. The owner sinisterly snarled "I'm
really going to enjoy this" when he began cutting. As we were escorted off
the property I passed a bin filled to the brim with the faces of cows killed
the day before. We were ridiculed and laughed at, called lettuce heads and
myself a meat patty; even the Premier, Peter Beattie, said we got what we
deserved.

A bigger assault hit when we returned to Melbourne. A strong spirit is the
most powerful tool an animal activist can have and integrity is the rock on
which the animal movement must stand. The spirit was saddened and the rock
was wobbling, however, when I read several book reviews about Peter Singer's
new book co-authored with Jim Mason, "The Way We Eat: Why Our Food Choices
Matter".

Yes, Peter Singer is an articulate writer and known globally as the "father"
of the animal movement and without doubt, this book will open some eyes and
close mouths to certain types of food. However, Singer is letting many
animals down and turning a blind eye to their brutal slaughter,
rubber-stamping their death by cautiously trying to keep the status-quo
happy.

It's much easier for Singer and more palatable for the public, that he
advise them on what "meat is the most humane to eat", whether one should eat
"farmed fish or wild ones", or casually describe how to be a 'conscientious
carnivore'. Just make sure the animals you eat aren't factory farmed and are
'humanely' slaughtered.

Singer's recent media interviews seem to place abolitionists in a box marked
"fanatic". I don't believe people who oppose abattoirs and the
institutionalized and systematic killing of others are fanatics. We are in
the minority and we are taking on 'the world'. Sadly, it's become clear that
Singer is an "Uncle Peter" rather than father to the animals. During his
radio, TV, and print interviews promoting his new book Singer failed to take
the excellent opportunity to promote in any way a vegan lifestyle as the
true ethical choice for less suffering, terror and destruction in the world.
As Gary Francione, Professor of Law at Rutgers clearly and simply states: "Veganism
is the one truly abolitionist goal that we can all achieve - and we can
achieve it immediately, starting with our next meal."

This is an alarm bell appealing to compassionate people and animal activists
everywhere to step back and look at the bigger picture. If we substitute
humans for animals in Singer's reasoning the inherent speciesism of his
viewpoint becomes clear. Would we argue that fewer beatings and a longer
chain would make slavery acceptable or ethical? Not any more than we should
contemplate 'kindly' cutting the throat of an innocent animal to feed our
face.

While Singer would argue that his moderate approach provides a
stepping-stone for the average consumer who is frightened by the word vegan,
it merely serves to perpetuate the false belief that animals are our
property to use as we like. It's our job to lead the way to abolition. To
work for anything less is to put your finger on the trigger of the captive
bolt pistol.